Derry ready to test Gretna

The Irish side that Martin ONeill helped save insist they can end Gretnas dream. By Paula Gordon

DERRY CITY can thank Martin O’Neill and Celtic that they are still in existance, but the Eircom Premier League side will not be returning any favours to Scottish football when they travel to Fir Park on Thursday for their Uefa Cup first-round tie with Gretna.

Derry faced financial ruin in 2000 and, with debts of more than £100,000, extinction was virtually a certainty. But in a dramatic reversal of fortune, O’Neill, an ex-City player, agreed to bring his Celtic team across for an exhibition match, generating enough funds to keep the club afloat.

The band of talented youngsters that will line up in Motherwell are dangerous underdogs that Gretna ought to be wary of. Having thrown the form book out the window with an assured victory over two-time Uefa Cup winners IFK Gothenburg in the last round, however, they will not be saddled with an inferiority complex, as their outspoken